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Oyster/Story
Fondness Story I. Discrimination I was from a poor, backward village on the outskirts of Gloriville. The villagers there were ignorant and uneducated. To them, everything unfamiliar spelled disaster. --Be it a tourist from faraway lands or a food soul they summoned in a panic. They lived in the small world of their village, and many of them were quick to anger… Even to me, their actions were quite unnatural. --Getting engaged to an outsider was an unforgivable sin to them, and they often married their own relatives that they were familiar with. And I appeared here, in this place that discriminated against all that was unknown. They had never heard of the beings known as food souls, nor had they encountered fallen angels. I suddenly appeared without warning, and even my physical appearance was extremely alien to them. Everyone believed that I was an omen of disaster. Hard rocks and rotten produce, all imbued with their hatred, were pelted at me. Seeing an outsider sneaking through the crowd, I suddenly felt a laughable sort of kinship with him. I lived in a dilapidated thatched shed. When it rained, it poured, and streams of rainwater would pour in through the run-down roof onto me. With nowhere else to go, I covered myself with my shield. This was the only place I belonged. The man who summoned me forbade me from living with him. One day, fearsome fallen angels appeared around the village, and I thought that I’d be accepted if I defeated them. But reality proved that it was nothing more than wishful thinking. When the fallen angels attacked, all the villagers shrunk away and trembled, and once they ascertained the fallen angels’ deaths, they crowded around me. However, I didn’t receive the acceptance I dreamed of. “All because of you, you monster!” “All because of you!” “If you weren’t here! These monsters wouldn’t have come!!!” “Look at our fields! All ruined! All because of you!” Seeing the villagers all riled up, I couldn’t help but lower my head and laugh at myself. Why are you still so hopeful about these people? Do you want them to accept you? It’s impossible. There’s nobody in the world who will accept you. II. Place of Belonging Since that day, I’ve been further alienated by the villagers. Just like the small thatched shed standing out in the lonely outskirts, I was on my own. I got used to this feeling soon, and sometimes I even felt that it was better to be alone. There’d be nobody to cast hateful glares at me, no condemning words, no endless invectives hurled at me. Excluding the fallen angel attacks, I rather enjoyed being alone in this shack. It was as if this fragile structure had magical properties, granting me a sense of security. As the days passed me by, I thought that this would continue forever. But suddenly, one day, someone wreathed in blinding light opened the long-rotten door of the shed. With the jarring noise of the door hinge, the red-haired man stepped towards me and with a bright smile, he reached out his hand to me. “I’m here to take you away, do you want to come with me?” “Don’t touch me!” “I won’t touch you. I’m here to take you away, so, do you want to come with me? From what I learned, you must have led a miserable life here.” “None of your business.” “You don’t have to make such a hasty decision, I’ll be waiting for you at the village entrance. If you’ve made up your mind by tomorrow morning, you can come to me.” The man didn’t mind me being high on guard and left the shed with a smile. I tugged at the hem of my clothes. Seeing the man leave, my heart stirred anxiously. I didn’t know what to choose. In the end, I made up my mind. As I looked for belongings to pack, I found it laughable that even after living there for such a long time, there wasn’t a single thing I wanted to bring with me. The night air was cooling. After a look around, I found the villagers hiding all over, watching me in secret. They looked on with gazes of fear and loathing. I’ve long since gotten used to the loathful glares. The fearful glances were because they were afraid of me attacking them like the fallen angels. Seeing this, I couldn’t hold in my laughter. I came to the entrance of the village, to the man alien to this run-down, backward village. He looked at me with confusion. “What are you laughing about?” “About how hilarious it was that I wondered whether my departure would worry the villagers.” “Is that so… Since you’ve made up your mind, let’s go. Though, I didn’t expect that you didn’t kill these people who treated you so poorly…” “Go where?” “Is that important? Since you’ll be by my side from now on. You don’t have to face this world alone anymore.” “......” I arrived at the tavern by the name of “Desire” with him. The mistress of the tavern was a beautiful food soul in a red dress, with a pair of red eyes as bright as her skirt. She told me that the man who brought me there was Spaghetti. The Desire Tavern was run by Borscht, who was also in charge of gathering intel, while Spaghetti would be the one to pick out missions from it. We were able to obtain our living expenses that way. A simple equivalent exchange. Trading hard work for money. Others wouldn’t look at me with hatred, as if I were the source of all evil. Even though this lifestyle was tiring, it was everything I dreamed of. Ensuring the accuracy of Borscht’s intel, making trades and negotiations… Spaghetti always went out with a food soul that looked like a robot. His name was B-52, and I would often find fresh scars on him. I’ve brought up time and time again that I could go on those dangerous missions with them, but the request was always turned down by Spaghetti. The robotic food soul by his side never went against Spaghetti’s orders either, always refusing to tell me where they were going. I once questioned Spaghetti’s reasoning, since surely I was strong enough to fight by his side. Yet he never gave me a straight answer. III. Mission Spaghetti would often leave the miscellaneous errands to me to get me off his back. Finally, after my repeated questioning, he answered grudgingly. “Someday, when you’ve seen the truth of this world, I’ll let you do those things. It’s still too soon for you now.” I didn’t understand the meaning between the lines, but I did see his cold expression, worlds apart from his usual warm and gentle face. I didn’t know what Spaghetti experienced in the past, nor did I know what he wanted to do. But I did learn from his conversations with Borscht that the errands I was sent on were just the tip of the iceberg. There was something important they wanted to accomplish, but they would never tell me. It was as if Spaghetti was walking through a dark, endless tunnel, and he allowed only B-52 to be by his side. But suddenly, one day, the robotic guy disappeared. There was only Spaghetti left in that dark tunnel, moving forwards. I wanted to be by his side. I wanted to know what he wanted to do, and why he brought me to him… That’s why I had to work even harder. B-52’s disappearance didn’t impact our lives that much, though that was only to Borscht and me. His disappearance must have been a great loss to Spaghetti. Though he didn’t show it, I could feel his mood shift. The biggest toll of B-52’s disappearance would have to be on the efficiency of missions. A mission that would have taken the two of them no more than a week to complete now took Spaghetti upwards of two weeks, and he still had yet to return. Seeing my bandaged hand, dressed by Spaghetti, I couldn’t help but worry. In the time we’ve been together, I realized, that the Borscht behind the counter and the unreadable Spaghetti had become like “family” to me… Borscht cupped her cheek with worry. “What shall we do, there’s still a mission we have to complete in Sakurajima… When will Spaghetti return…” My brow knit at the sight of Borscht leaned against the counter and sighing, and I asked her experimentally. “What mission? I’ll do it.” Borscht’s attention returned with a jolt and she shook her head after some consideration. “Spaghetti’s order, you can’t go, it’s too dangerous for you.” “I want to help too, let me go.” Borscht lost the fight against my determined stare. “Alright, alright, you can go, but be careful, Sakurajima isn’t a cakewalk.” Just as Borscht said, Sakurajima is an island chain that had been conquered by fallen angels, and the barrage of attacks from them never stopped. No matter how hard I fought, it was as if the fallen angels were unkillable and horde came after horde. I was barely holding myself up. My vision blurred, yet the fallen angels before me kept coming. Could it be, that this is where I disappear…… A stranger joined the battle. With his help, the fallen angels were quickly beaten back. When I turned around to thank him, before the words were out of my mouth, my body was hoisted up. “Tha…… What are you doing!!!! PUT ME DOWN!!!!!!!!!” IV. Differences My savior was a food soul as well, named Beer. He brought me to what was apparently his old friend’s residence, a quiet courtyard in a sakura forest. He said that this was a beautiful, dreamlike place, a private school that seemed almost otherworldly. The owner of the school happily welcomed us. I was extremely thankful for that. However, I couldn’t take the way that joyful guy treated me like the other little troublemakers of the school. I didn’t want to connect with them too much, so I didn’t voluntarily make conversation. Unexpectedly, the kitties that the owner of the school Sanma and the kids took care of warmed up to me quickly and were always around me. When I had the little fluffy creatures in my lap, their warmth dumbfounded me. Whenever it happened, that Beer guy would smile at me in a way that made me uncomfortable. He called it “parental affection”, but it brought me only insurmountable humiliation. The people in the school always ignored my angry complaints, always circling me like I’m a playmate. What’s more unbearable was the way Beer always judged my age by my height. This was something I had never experienced. I looked towards Beer, who was idly singing a tune he wrote and couldn’t help but become relaxed and fell asleep. Food souls’ bodies weren’t fragile like humans’, but they needed time to recuperate after severe injuries all the same. That’s why Beer brought me here. He said he was traveling, yet he stayed with me. He seemed happy to be drinking and chatting with his old friends. Surely, him saying I held up his travels was a lie! The day I recovered, I went to the man observing the idle clouds in the courtyard, intending to bid him farewell. I must walk the road afterward on my own. Unexpectedly, he got up and patted his clothes. “I’ll go with you!” I looked at him with shock. I knew he was going somewhere in the opposite direction of Nevras, where the scenery will be beautiful in a few months. The next moment, I found him ruffling my hair, his words cutting my feelings of gratitude short. “Little guy, I’m not going to rest easy knowing you might get attacked by fallen angels again.” “WHO’S LITTLE?!!!” On the way back to Nevras, time flew by with Beer’s companionship. Beer had traveled to many places, seen many things, and he liked to compose songs from his experiences. In our short journey, I learned two things. Firstly, Beer was an idiot who’d believe anything. Secondly, he was utterly useless besides singing, though admittedly, I did enjoy his songs. I must have been possessed as I spoke my mind. “Beer… If we meet again, will you sing to me of what you see after we part ways?” “Hm?” “Uh… Nothing.” “Hm… Then you can tell me when you want to, so let’s chat!” “Huh?” “Let’s talk about, say, where you were in the past? Or what you like to eat? What about the types of girls you like?” “Huh?!” “Or perhaps, why you went to such a dangerous place as Sakurajima alone?” That night we talked for a long time, and perhaps I understood Beer a little more. For some reason, I told Beer everything--including about Spaghetti. In the light of the campfire, I saw his stern expression. “Oyster.” “Hm?” “Leave that place and travel with me. There are many beautiful things to experience in this world. You shouldn’t stay there.” “...I won’t leave that place… It’s my home… They’re like my family.” The friendly atmosphere was dispersed with unhappiness. The next sunrise, the stern expression Beer wore the previous night was nowhere to be found, as if I dreamed it up. The long journey came to an end. I went silent, staring at the city walls. We arrived at the outskirts of Nevras, and I knew this guy had to continue his own travels. No matter whether I’ll miss him, I had returned to where I had to. V. Oyster Oyster’s master attendant was born in an extremely backwater village, where there was no place for outsiders, good or bad. As a food soul that suddenly appeared, Oyster was treated as an ill omen. The attacks of fallen angels were blamed on the innocent food soul by the villagers as a matter of course as well. This put Oyster in a bad place. By request of the village elder, one of the villagers went to Nevras to find the tavern spoken of in tales and made a wish to have Oyster and the fallen angels disappear. It wasn’t the first time Borscht received a request relating to food souls, but it was the first time she saw Spaghetti make a slightly sad expression, even if it lasted a mere second. Perhaps Spaghetti thought that this was combat power they could use. Perhaps Spaghetti thought that it was funny for the village that didn’t accept anything foreign to make a request with them. Perhaps… Borscht couldn’t read what Spaghetti had in mind bringing Oyster to them. Even she, being the closest to Spaghetti, wouldn’t have known that he saw his past, desperate people-pleasing self in the Oyster who was disliked by many. Spaghetti treated Oyster surprisingly gently. He took it upon himself to do many things that he didn’t want to let Oyster do. It wasn’t because Oyster wasn’t strong enough, rather it was like his heart was untainted. Before Oyster saw the worst the world had in store, he wasn’t going to understand them. Oyster kept trying to prove his worth, that he was strong enough to stand by Spaghetti’s side, but it never happened. So when Spaghetti was out, he took on what Spaghetti was going to do next. Sakurajima, a country where humans couldn’t live normally anymore. When the neverending barrage of fallen angels made Oyster think he was about to disappear, a man stood before him with a smile, taking all his hits for him. When he awoke, the ridiculously kindhearted Beer had brought him to Sanma’s private school to recuperate, while he himself took to singing the songs he wrote in the courtyard. When Oyster returned to the tavern, he was scolded harshly by the Spaghetti who rarely lost his temper. Seeing Spaghetti showing him his emotions for the first time, Oyster burst into laughter. He finally got closer to Spaghetti, he thought. Sometime later, Oyster, who was at the Bamboo Mist Pawnshop to buy intel for Spaghetti, met that constantly cheerful guy again. There were two who were friends of Beer who mixed like oil and water, and one of them wrapped an arm around Oyster’s shoulders after downing a shot. “Yer the Oyster guy, right? Heh… Lemme tell you, that guy that orders you around, he ain't so good a man.” As if this was an argument he was trying to win, the other pushed Beer aside to wrap his arm around Oyster as well, forceful enough you’d think he was trying to squash Oyster or shove Peking Duck, who was on the other side, away. “Heh, if that guy could be considered good, I’d be loving humans! Hic!” The one who latched onto Oyster first, Peking Duck, saw that angering mug and retorted drunkenly with a playful smirk. “Heh, bet you do know, if you follow that guy yer gonna lose the things you love.” After suddenly becoming the subject of a drunkard’s argument, Oyster had to resist the urge to beat them both up and breathed in deeply. “I do know.” Oyster didn’t like the close proximity to the two tipsy men and shoved them aside. “I’m here to get intel too, this time. You have ten seconds to tell me, I don’t have much patience.” He knew that Spaghetti did far more than the simple things he knew of from the very beginning. However, Spaghetti was the first person in the world to accept him. Even as the dangerous person others spoke of, he still needed the help of others. Even if the road Spaghetti walked would only lead to a dead end, he would always stay by his side. He wanted to use his actions to tell the man who always wore a smile, yet never showing his true feelings; just like he did on that day. “You don’t have to face this world alone anymore.” Category:Food Soul Story